Glee Christmas Songs Cross Over Seasons

With Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Vol. 3 new at retail, and Glee having just aired its seasonal Yule show, fans may be wondering why some songs on Glee’s Christmas CD haven’t been on telecasts — and if they ever will be.

A review of those discs shows one problem: Each has 10 to 12 tunes, and that’s too many to fit into a single yearly Yule show. Yet that hasn’t stopped some Glee Christmas songs from crossing over — from one season to another. So if you loved Santana’s soulful Silent Night on the new disc and wish you could see it performed, don’t give up.

After all, when Glee did only a single Christmas song in 2009 during Season One, it didn’t appear in any episode that year (there was no formal Christmas show). But it did crop up a year later in Season Two.

That song — Glee’s first Christmas track — was a buoyant spin on Wham!’s Last Christmas, sung as a duet between Rachel and Finn (Lea Michele and Cory Monteith) with choral backing. A year after it was issued in Season One, fans finally got to see the song performed as the couple roamed a Christmas tree lot in Season Two’s A Very Glee Christmas episode. (Photo above.) Last Christmas then became part of Glee’s debut Christmas Album, released in 2010.

In another twist, Rachel’s powerful O Holy Night was part of The Christmas Album Vol. 2 last year, but did not appear in any episode last season. Yet in Season Four’s recently aired Swan Song episode, the song was unearthed for Rachel to sing O Holy Night as an encore for her NYADA performance. So you never know.

On a related noted, Santana’s Santa Baby was on the second Christmas Album, released during Season Three, but did not appear in that year’s Extraordinary Merry Christmas Yule show. Yet a performance was shot and did appear eventually as a “deleted scene” released on YouTube and as an extra on Season Three’s DVD. (Like I said, there are a lot of holiday songs, and only so much telecast time.)

Beyond that, a song which was central to the Extraordinary Merry Christmas telecast was not on that year’s Christmas Album Vol. 2. It was My Favorite Things from the delightful mock TV Christmas special at Kurt and Blaine’s “bachelor chalet.” Granted, that tune from The Sound of Music is not technically a holiday song, but it did serve the Yule episode beautifully.

As for songs on this year’s Christmas Album Vol. 3 which weren’t in Season Four’s Glee, Actually Christmas show, two are old standards — the aforementioned Silent Night from Naya Rivera, and Joy to the World from Alex Newell — while the other, Happy Xmas (War Is Over), is a 1971 peace movement song by the Beatles’ John Lennon as a solo artist, sung by Finn and the cast.

Will such songs ever appear on telecasts for future seasons? Considering Glee’s cross-over history for its holiday-themed music, there’s a chance. After all, most holiday music is considered “perennial,” meaning it could arise any year.

So keep watching — and meanwhile, have yourself a merry little Christmas, or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate.

— Bruce Westbrook

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